Jeremy Renner after his horror accident - "Great fear" of returning to the set
Jeremy Renner (53) hasn't had the energy to take on demanding roles since his near-fatal snowplow accident 18 months ago. In a podcast, he also expressed fear of acting again.
"I just don't have the energy for it. I don't have the fuel," Renner told moderators Will Arnett (54), Jason Bateman (55), and Sean Hayes (54) on the "Smartless" podcast about major challenges in front of the camera. He had to put so much energy "into this reality, into this body, into all these things," Renner added. He couldn't just pretend it was otherwise.
Renner broke more than 30 bones on New Year's Day 2023 when he was buried under a snowplow on his property. The actor explained that his chest was rebuilt with a metal plate. Plates in his face support his eye sockets, and he has titanium rods in one of his legs.
"A Big Challenge"
He finally stood before the camera again in January of this year to film his series "Mayor of Kingstown." About his return to acting, the 53-year-old told Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes: "I'm still trying to live in reality. It was a hard limit for me that I had to cross. It was a long way. It was a big challenge for me to get over that hump."
He still struggles sometimes: "I don't take it too seriously. I'm in a role that I can play very well and I know the series very well, so it was easy for me to get back into it," Renner said about his role as Mike McLusky in "Mayor of Kingstown." "But if it had been a very demanding role, I couldn't have taken it." He meant a role like that of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, which "is so far from me," he explained. In 2002, he appeared in the film "Dahmer."
Jeremy Renner is now working alongside Daniel Craig (56) in Rian Johnson's (50) third "Knives Out" film, "Wake Up Dead Man," making it his first film role since the accident.
"Actor Jeremy Renner, after his horrific accident in January 2023, found standing before the camera again a 'big challenge'. He admitted this during a podcast with Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. Renner's return to acting was in the series 'Mayor of Kingstown', where he portrays Mike McLusky. Interestingly, Renner, now working alongside Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson's upcoming film 'Wake Up Dead Man', is taking on his first film role since the accident."
